Comments on: John Dewey and the Chaos of Contemporary Public Education

By: applecider123

applecider123 — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:46:29 +0000

The only critique I’d like to add to this otherwise excellent (and chilling) presentation:
In Soviet Union the main goal of the school education was the fastest possible acquisition of solid knowledge. The method of teaching was simple - unchallenged authority. The system of grading - also very simple, consisting of promotions and decorations versus punishment and chastisement (not physical, of course).
No socialization, no group projects, every week - many severe tests. Interclass competition till grinding of teeth.
That’s why no matter what is saying the American propaganda we were growing free and independent. Everyone had its own cherished opinion. That’s why, when we are living here now (i.e. - in the USA) it is next to impossible for American brain-washing technique to smash us into pulp. I am the living example. My kids, who long ago rejected the American “education” by homeschooling, are now taking the banner from my weakening hand.

By: Terry Melanson

Terry Melanson — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:34:13 +0000

Thanks for the comment.

I highly regard the articles you have written over the years.

By: Lynn M Stuter

Lynn M Stuter — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:55:51 +0000

Excellent piece. I would like to bring one point, however. The United States was not established as a “capitalist society”; it was established as a “free market society” in which the government had no role outside regulating interstate commerce.

“Capitalism” was a term coined by Karl Marx. It is a misnomer, just as the term “democracy”, used to describe our system of government today, is also a misnomer.

As established, we are a “free market society” in a “constitutional republic”; we aren’t a capitalist society in a democracy.

Both of these terms refer to tenants of socialism/communism. In writing Federalist #10, James Madison made it very plain that the Founding Fathers held great disdain for “democracy.” In the words of Madison, the form of government itself has no tolerance for mischiefs of faction and would ever be as short in its life as it was violent in its death as it is rule by majority with the rights of the minority at the whim of the majority; that under such a form of government no man was secure in his rights, his person or his property (which includes conscience).